In her second outing, Natacha Ramsay-Levi describes her vision for the French brand, what it's like to step into the limelight, and the legacy of both Karl Lagerfeld and British designers

“I love Chloé!” announced Natacha Ramsay-Levi at our third meeting—just as she had done when we were chatting in Paris about her work at Balenciaga and her four-year-old son; and then again when there was a Chloé party in New York with 115 young, lively and interesting women in the world of art and music.

Now we were together in London’s Selfridges store, where she was doing a meet-and-greet for clients with Chloé CEO Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye.

And, of course, Ramsay-Levi, 37, was the mirror image of the kind of clothes she will send out this week in Paris—her second outing. The look was of a silken blouse loosely touching the body, a brief, barely-there skirt and bare legs right down to the solid leather boots. A woman who walks fast forward.

“For the first show I wanted it to be a mosaic of what I believe is really relevant for Chloé and what I like to work on—little chapters, two or three looks—a lot of layers and a lot of different things,” she said. “But I really wanted this second show to be my point of view. It’s going to be much more focussed.”

She then talked about the image of a 21st century Chloé, and her work with Steven Meisel and his cinematography.

How does she feel about—at last—being in the limelight after working with Nicolas Ghesquière, first for the transformation of Balenciaga and then as the creative go-between at Louis Vuitton? Is there a sense of freedom?

“I love Chloé, which is important,” she says. “It’s always been on my radar and I think it is very interesting to have a frame. I am such a ‘fashion kid’—there is nothing that I don’t like. I have learned, growing older, not to say, ‘No! Never!’ You can always change your mind and I like the fact that it is an ongoing conversation—a bit like taking the past to make it into something that is relevant to the future. I am not using the past as a ghost, but it is the way Sci-Fi uses it—taking the past to make what is the future.”

Her first Chloé show last September had a statement in her notes that claimed: “Chloé girls have a suave mix of sophistication and humility—they are timeless but never conventional”. It sounded rather like herself, and I gave her full marks for a modern and very French take on the whimsical Flower Child. There were high-necked tops with full sleeves and a little skirt that had French allure, as did a sharp-cut velvet trouser and a more dreamy 1970s style dress with prints of feathers. And, of course, the all important handbags.

“The first show was very broad and about a multiplicity of women, but now it is more psychological—about getting into a play of selves,’” she explained. Then adding: “And for me, the Chloé girl is very French but for a lot of people she is very English—because all the the designers were.”

Ramsay-Levi was referring to a string of British designer names including Stella Mccartney, Phoebe Philo, who just left Céline, and Clare Waight Keller, who had previously been at Chloé and has now joined Givenchy.

And what about Karl Lagerfeld, who was the hardly known designer who put Chloé on the map back in the 1970s?

‘’My first idea about Karl is the way he is totally connected to the French cinema,” the current designer explained. “It was a very 1970s house, very bourgeois and perfect in a way—but with Karl, it becomes a bit scandalous with the things he was playing with. And he was there for 15 years!”

“Really, when I started my research for Chloé, the Karl Lagerfeld years blew me over. It is incredible because it could be a woman of today.”

As someone who remembers a Karl show at Chloé, when he had torrents of water from a ‘shower’ worked in embroidery on the back of a slim evening dress, I hope to see some of these ideas re-made.

De la Bourdonnaye, who has arranged exhibitions of Chloé photographed in its early years by photographer Guy Bourdin, has throughout his tenure tried to keep the spirit of the brand’s original founder, the late Gaby Aghion, who had Egyptian origins. But like any other fashion company founded in history, there has to be a constant refreshing,

So who actually is the Chloé woman for 2018?

“I think it is not just one woman but women,” Ramsay-Levi says. “The principle of Chloé is to be a brand which comes into your life in an organic and natural way. There really is a sense of appropriation—and that is very important. On the advertising campaign, for example, we worked on different personalities. We had five different ones.’

I ask Ramsay-Levi if she thinks that there could be a single Chloé woman today, or perhaps two—one boyish, the other ultra feminine. And the designer comes up with her secret ‘weapon’ in her search for the Chloé ‘girl”.

“There is still a divide between mannish and feminine—I definitely see it,” she says. “I would say that my step-daughter is from the boyish side—I mean she is feminine and she doesn’t want to look like a boy. She is gorgeous and sometimes she puts lipstick on—she is 13. But yes, she wants to be comfortable and she likes the idea of being dressed the same way as her boyfriend. In this idea of equality, there are girls who have already stated equality by the way they dress.”

And her own life? How does she feel about being a working mother for her young son?

“First, being a mother is in the centre of it,” she says, “but also to accomplish what I want, I have been raised with the idea that you also are working.”